Head coach Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors are currently in the midst of a highly important offseason for the future direction of the franchise, hoping to prove to the doubters (and there are many of them) that their dynastic days are not yet over. Kerr and star point guard Stephen Curry are currently overseas preparing for the upcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris, but that hasn't stopped the Warriors' brass back home from staying busy, including bringing in well-respected former NBA head coach Terry Stotts to be Kerr's new lead assistant on the sidelines.
Recently, Kerr broke down how he envisions Stotts helping to smooth out a Warriors' offense that has gotten stagnant at times over the past couple of seasons.
“He fits what we want to do and get a little bit more patterned,” Kerr said, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “He loves movement. Portland, you know, they always had a lot of motion and movement, but it was probably more patterned than what we’ve done. Terry can really help us put in some new things that may be easier to run but maintain the motion.”
Stotts also spoke on what he plans on his role being in the Bay.
“They’ve had a great offense for a lot of years,” Stotts said. “Steph’s been doing pretty well (laughs). I think I can maybe bring some fresh eyes to it. The roster has changed a little bit. But it’s not like I’m going to be in charge of anything. I think I can be a good sounding board for Steve on the offensive end and might be able to implement some things we did in Portland.”
Can the Warriors turn it around?
As Stotts mentioned, the Warriors were for a long period of time the league's premier model for how to build the perfect modern offense, a designation that now belongs to the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics.
However, with Klay Thompson, who has since departed for the Dallas Mavericks, and Draymond Green both experiencing dramatic declines while Stephen Curry is also not quite at the level he was at his peak, it has been much tougher for Golden State to keep up with other teams over the last couple of years.
Kerr knows that might take some time for Golden State to fully integrate Stott's vision for revamping the offense.
“We’re not going to shift dramatically,” Kerr said. “With Steph and Draymond, we’re always going to run a lot of things through those guys. And they’re going to play the way they play. But I do think that we can be, like I said, more patterned. We have to practice more. Bottom line, we have to practice more. I’ve got to figure out a better way to streamline practice, get our actions over and over again into patterns so that we can execute better against pressure defense. … We’ve always been a team that has had to rely on execution and movement because we’re not a great one-on-one team. But with the group that we have now, I think we need more work and more repeatable patterns.”
In any case, the season is set to get underway in October.
Follow Us
Subscribe
